Print Isn’t Dead…I have Proof!

12042012

We are sad to announce (again) that Print is dead.

It passed away quietly at home (again), surrounded by friends and family who mourned the passing of a medium that had been in existence since just after the dinosaurs woke up to find out they were having a really bad day. A victim of new technology, it’s contribution to the world was no longer deemed necessary or relevant. The simple act of turning a page and taking time to consider the content had been replaced by a generation of users who preferred to scroll and click or even to swipe a moist finger over a pixelated screen.

But hold the front page…print ISN”T dead. There are signs of life, the corpse is twitching…and has been for some considerable time.

It’s alive…

How do I know this?

Firstly, I (and probably thousands of others) still have magazine subscriptions.

Each week, a piece of printed media is dropped into my physical mailbox. The Economist (weekly), Rolling Stone (every fortnight) and Total Film/Classic Rock (monthly) are deposited outside my door by a mailperson – another service that was supposed to die when email arrived…

Secondly, I walk through airports and see magazines, I go to Barnes & Noble and see magazines or newspapers. In my office at home, there are piles of the things…waiting patiently to be read.

I even have a copy of a magazine devoted to Social Media…the physical manifestation of life turning full circle.

And today, the final proof that Print Isn’t Dead. Something I stumbled upon while looking for unrelated information on the Internet.

There is a magazine devoted ENTIRELY to Machinery Lubrication. A bible for those involved in the lubrication of machinery. It’s called Machinery Lubrication Magazine.

Which is the best news that I have read today. Everything else will pale into insignificance.

I love this. Seriously.

Apparently there are 35,000 subscribers to this publication. OK, they only get 6 issues a year but the fact that it exists in the first place is further proof that not everybody likes to receive their information through a screen or by squinting at a mobile phone. MLM provides a service to it’s readers, gives them something to hold in their hands when they are not lubricating machines. It’s a reason to believe that not everything in the world needs to be online.

Machinery Lubrication Magazine…I take my virtual hat off to you.

And in other news…it’s going to be Mitt. You all know it. Accept the reality of the 1% getting another chance to run your lives from the White House. You can even read about it in print if you prefer…

I never said that Print was in a healthy state, the post was a general observation that there is still a market for printed material. I know about the newspapers that have closed and I am fully aware of a decline in readership etc…I have to be, I’m a freelance journalist!

But hang on a minute…I was in a record store this week in Boston and saw the new Madonna album on vinyl, was able to pick up the latest graphic novels without charging my tablet, can still buy a newspaper on a daily basis. Obsolete? To lump print in with forms of mass entertainment that require a player to access their “content” is the typical reaction of someone who doesn’t seem to appreciate the tactile nature of the medium. Tablets and their ilk have their place in the 21st Century – they sum up everything that is wrong with this high-speed,instantly connected matrix that we all think is so great.

Whenever I think of the hold that the electronics industry (especially the companies that can’t wait to make their own products obsolete as quickly as possible, I presume that you are on your third iPad in 2 years?) has over the consumer, it makes me concerned not for our past – which you would be keen to consign to a real trash-can – but for the future. Formats become outdated very quickly, that is the nature of progress (something we all end up paying for) but there is nothing wrong with being pleased that a niche exists for those who want to take their time over assimilating content.

Rant over, thanks for reading my virtual piece in praise of Print.

For the record, I don’t have a horse-drawn buggy. I just prefer to walk.